The news each week is filled with increasingly horrific stories of the effects of violent extremism and ISIL-led and ISIL-inspired attacks in Iraq, Syria and around the world. We will make a a clear-eyed assessment of the challenge of violent extremism, including recruitment and radicalization, and the current state of the conflict and discuss how the US and our partners might respond in 2017 and beyond. How are the US defense, intelligence, diplomatic, and development agencies working to prevent the rise of violent extremism and counter ISIL? What consensus for our strategies and tactics exists among US allies and partners? What role should the multilateral organizations, including the UN, NATO and others play in the year ahead? How is ISIL able to convince young vulnerable populations across the globe to join them? How do we work with our local communities and in communities in Europe and other regions to identify signs of radicalization to violence and prevent it? How is the US and our partners working to leverage the technology sector, social media platforms and counter-messaging efforts to counter ISIL’s use of the internet for self-promotion and recruitment?

Rukmini Callimachi, Foreign Correspondent covering extremism, The New York Times

Michael Ortiz, Deputy Coordinator for Countering Violent Extremism, Bureau of Counterterrorism, US Department of State

The Silicon Valley mythos describes a steady stream of young, idealistic startup founders who have made it big. No longer content on joining the next “unicorn” (the unprofitable startup with a billion dollar valuation), entrepreneurs now chase the goal of the “deca-corn” - the 10 billion dollar startup. But what about the rest of those many unknown entrepreneurs battling to make it to the top?

Alexandra Wolfe, staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal and author of Valley of the Gods, takes us on a journey into the unique Silicon Valley culture, turning her relentless gaze and unflinching wit on the life and times of the startup bubble. What makes these Silicon Valley entrepreneurs tick? How do these young up-and-comers balance Silicon Valley’s endless optimism with its lofty expectations? Who are these men and women of Silicon Valley, whose hubris and ambition are changing the world?

Speaker Alexandra Wolfe is an author and Staff Reporter at the Wall Street Journal.

The conversation is moderated by Brad Stone, Senior Executive Editor for Technology at Bloomberg News.

For more information about this event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/event-calendar/event/1673

Take an extraordinary journey through the criminal underworld of the Mexican drug cartels and the dark heart of the US-Mexican drug wars. Los Zetas, the infamous Mexican drug cartel, has taken gang brutality to unprecedented levels. United States and Mexican law enforcement agencies accuse Los Zetas of hundreds of deaths and laundering millions of dollars.

As blood has spilled on both sides of the US-Mexican border, the cartels have increasingly turned to children as their foot soldiers - for trafficking, kidnapping, and even murder. Journalist Dan Slater has spent years researching this phenomena as it has played out in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and just across the border in its sister city, Laredo, Texas - border towns that are a prime battleground for control of lucrative US drug smuggling routes.

Sharing insights from his book, "Wolf Boys", Slater will respond to the questions: Who are the casualties when cartels go to war? Why did the cartels begin this sinister recruitment of children, and how did two American teens get caught up in the violence? What can be done to break this vicious cycle?

Speaker Dan Slater is author of Wolf Boys.

The discussion is moderated by Andrew Becker, Reporter, The Center for Investigative Reporting.

For more information about this event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/event-calendar/event/1632

Disorder is on the rise: in the Middle East, in Europe, across Asia and even on the home front. It is not merely that the players in the international arena have changed, but the rules of the game itself have changed too. Old approaches to world affairs are now rendered obsolete.

Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations and author of the upcoming book, A World in Disarray, will provide a compelling diagnosis of the most pressing global challenges today and his prescription for a renewed American foreign policy to address these challenges. In the age of non-state actors re-writing traditional rules of diplomacy, the US, while still an indispensable nation, must also recognize that once-great powers are losing their sway. The old global order has shifted, but the US - through its relationships with China, Russia and in the Middle East - can help forge a new order for this twenty-first century world.

Calling upon his years of experience working as an analyst and in the highest levels of government, Haass will provide a lucid and incisive analysis: what is the state of the world; how did it become a world of disarray; and what can we do about it?

Speaker Richard N. Haass is President of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The conversation is moderated by Kori Schake, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

For more information please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/media-library/event/1678